Frustrated by a lack of informed and honest review websites covering a wide range of electronic music, I write them myself.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

5 Song Weekly Mini-Review #9

No, really, I have a legit excuse this time. Would you believe “bad back”? I developed a vicious knot underneath my right shoulder-blade, which made putting my right arm (aka: mouse hand) at keyboard level quite painful for any length of time. No, better to let it heal properly - and by properly, I mean taking a bunch of meds to muddle through. Yay legal drug trade! That said, let’s find out what five random songs I’m going to talk about this week.

Oh man, Hypertrophy. Did these guys ever have a bunch of hits back in the day, eh? Um, actually, they only had a couple before disappearing, but they were classics for the burgeoning ‘club trance’ scene of the late 90s. Their shtick was the ‘bells riff’, something that was quite clearly style-bitten from Quench’s Dreams. Still, what they did with it was remains memorable, in that early epic-trance sort of way. This version is from a compilation that featured a whole bunch of trance of the time, going from floaty vocal stuff to hard acid psy. Yes, it can be done.

Yeah, Sony Music recycles these “greatest hits” collections every so often on the super cheap. I decided to pick a few up one time, as a decent primer on all these classic musicians should I ever dig further. Can’t say I’ve done so when it comes to Willie Nelson. There isn’t much more I can say about this song though. It’s a country ballad, so it’s charming, whimsical …there’s a harmonica. Seriously, you’ve heard this song a million times, even if not this particular one.

Hm, well not exactly obscure-obscure, but still quite an unknown tune. This is more of an ambient interlude on the album than a proper track, but for an album that was filled with such wibbling, this actually holds up quite nicely. Earthloop even hints at becoming a proper tune before it ends, which is a shame. Still, for what lasts, it remains pleasant enough; a definite look-see for ambient techno fans.

Ol’ Cliff could rap about any damn thing and make it sound impossibly cool. Here, however, it’s simple “I’m da’ man” bravado over a laid-back Erick Sermon beat. You can’t dismiss it, yet you’re not exactly riveted by it either, which has been a major complaint of Meth’s solo projects over the years. Perfect fodder for your spliffed-out mixtape.

I do believe that is one of the most random selection of songs I’ve done yet. The inclusion of Willie F’n Nelson in there only confirms it as such!